Why You Should ‘Like’ Using Social Media For Your Business

A guide for using sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to grow your business


Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are important for your business because they provide an open forum for the community. They offer a free venue to market your brand, let you share news about your products and services and provides a virtual place where you can interact directly with your customers. Social media leaves a door open for potential customers and gives you a quick and easy way to share special offers.

Social media marketing works best when you are transparent, when you engage with your customers and when you give something back. It doesn’t work as well if you oversell, rush, or forget to listen.

Here are some popular social media sites and how you can use them to your advantage:

Facebook offers a mini, all-in-one marketing firm for your business. By using Facebook, you can:

• Advertise deals, new services and products
• Post pictures of events
• Customize your page with a profile picture, cover photo and applications (apps)
• Share future products or events
• Interact with customers
• Make connections 

Twitter is a short-but-sweet blogging service that gives your business 140 characters to:

• Promote your services and products
• Interact with current and potential customers
• Comment on other companies
• Share links and pictures
• Advertise deals and coupons

Google+ is your communications tool:

• Think of Google+ as your brand hub
• Your page, profile image and recent posts are eligible to show up when relevant to a customer’s search
• Relevant posts can also show up within search results for your page’s followers
• Host Hangouts (similar to group video chats)
• Communities allows groups to form around particular interests
• Content sharing on Google+ is similar to Facebook

Pinterest is a virtual pin board for your business, focused primarily on photos and videos:

• Post pictures and videos of your products and services as well as other interesting content
• Follow popular brands and organizations
• Interact with your brand’s most loyal customers 

LinkedIn is a professional networking website to help you:

• Build up your business contacts
• Find and hire talent for your business
• Discuss business solutions and tips with other businesses in your field
• Develop a network with professionals in different areas to improve your business

#Hashtags Are Coming To Facebook

On Wednesday, Facebook announced that hashtags will now be clickable in an effort to create more public conversations on the social network.

Initially, the hashtag feature is being rolled out to a small group of users. Within the coming weeks, more users can expect to see clickable hashtags.

According to Facebook, users can now:

• Search for a specific hashtag from your search bar. For example, #NBAFinals.
• Click on hashtags that originate on other services, such as Instagram.
• Compose posts directly from the hashtag feed and search results.

What is a hashtag?

A hashtag is the number sign (#) combined with a word or phrase.

Here's how to use hashtags to promote your business.

Guest Blog: Why Facebook & Pinterest are More Popular Than Other Social Media

Have you ever wondered why Facebook and Pinterest are more popular than other platforms like Twitter, Linked In and Google +? 

I’ve been traveling a lot over the last few weeks and noticed that when I get online, after email, Facebook or Pinterest are the first places I go. 

Then, as the flight attendant was about halfway through her announcement, it hit me. . . 

Facebook, Pinterest and this particular flight attendant make it fun and entertaining: 

• Facebook keeps us interested with games, connections with friends from all aspects of our lives, pictures, videos, and more. 
• Pinterest depicts our lives and desires via pictures. It’s like a huge storybook. . .and fun. 
• And the flight attendant on my flight home from California kept us engaged by promising to confiscate and sell any electronics not turned off as a contribution to her retirement fund. 

Compare it to the more business-like, less-things-to-distract-us Twitter, Linked In and Google +. Now you’re likely thinking that Twitter is one big cocktail party with lots to grab our attention and you’re right. . .but there are no games, no immediately-get-our-attention-pictures and LinkedIn and Google + "feel" more like business than fun. 

Nike has teamed up with Apple to allow us to track our exercise, have it auto upload and let us “compete” with other people or even cities. . .all while going for our daily run. 

LoseIt allows us to track our exercise and food intake and awards us badges for doing so consistently. 

FitBit does the same and interfaces with Facebook so you can share with your friends or even have friendly competitions to see who walked the most steps in a given day. 

They combine fun rewards with optional accountability. 

Wondering how you can further engage your community, customers and clients? 

Ask yourself, how can I make it fun and inviting. Here’s just one of the things I’m tweaking in my business: 

• The Get It Done Right program will include badges and rewards for seniority, helping others in our forum and more. 

Just because it’s work/business, doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. After all, that’s great customer service and Extreme Client Care™

Sandra Martini is the owner of SandraMartini.com, a BBB Accredited Business since 2004.

Using Hashtags to Promote Your Business

Small businesses should be taking advantage of social media, especially Twitter and hashtags. A hashtag is the number sign (#) combined with a word or phrase. At BBB, we often use #BBB or #StartWithTrust at the end of our tweets.  This way, if people are looking to find general business or consumer tips, they will have a list on Twitter to reference.

A blog post by OPEN Forum has five tips to improve your hashtag strategy:

1. Look for business topics.  Hashtags like #smallbiz and #SMB are very popular on Twitter and they can be a good source of industry news. If you are looking for more specific information, try searching for hashtags like #sales, #marketing and #socialmedia.

2. Hashtags must be simple. You only have 140 characters to get the word out on Twitter. Don’t spend 50 of those characters with a long and complex hashtag.  Keep it short and simple.  Also, limit your tweets to 1-2 hashtags. Anymore than that is overkill.

3. Be creative. Make a hashtag for your business. If you’re hosting an event be sure to create a hashtag, so people can tweet about it.  For example, the Massachusetts Conference for Women encouraged attendees to use #masswomen for those who were tweeting about the event.  The hashtag was a great success on Twitter.

4. Monitor your hashtags. If you use a social media suite like HootSuite or TweetDeck, add a hashtag column to closely observe what people are tweeting. Or simply plug your hashtag in the search bar on Twitter.

5. #FollowFriday or #FF. Use Follow Friday to showcase your most loyal followers or other businesses you support. Try to put as many Twitter handles into one tweet as you can. For a more personal approach, only put one or two usernames.  

For more information, visit http://www.openforum.com/articles/how-to-use-twitter-hashtags-for-your-business/.